Software Subscription Not Allocated Due to Empty User Field on Discovered User RecordIssue <!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } After a publisher integration run in Software Asset Management (SAM), one or more Software Subscriptions appear as discovered under a valid User principal name, but the associated Discovered User record has its User reference field empty. As a result: The subscription cannot be reconciled or allocated to a ServiceNow sys_user record.The subscription remains unassigned in the SAM workspace and does not roll up correctly for compliance, entitlement, or reclamation reporting.Allocation Needed and Business Cost calculations may not reflect actual usage. Working scenario for comparison: On the same instance, other Discovered User records show the User field correctly populated with the matching ServiceNow user, and their subscriptions are allocated as expected. The difference between the working and non-working records is whether the UPN reported by the publisher matches an existing ServiceNow user's email. Environment Product: Software Asset Management (SAM) ProfessionalTables involved: samp_sw_subscription (Software Subscriptions)samp_discovered_user (Discovered Users)sys_user (Users) Integration: Any SAM publisher integration that reports user assignments by email / UPN (for example, SaaS publisher connectors, Microsoft 365, Adobe, Zoom, Salesforce, and similar)Applies to all currently supported ServiceNow releases Release<!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } No release specific Cause<!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } SAM publisher integrations identify subscription assignments using the user principal name (UPN) / email reported by the source system. During ingestion, ServiceNow attempts to match this UPN against the email field of an existing sys_user record in order to populate the User reference on the samp_discovered_user record. When the UPN reported by the publisher does not exactly match the email of any ServiceNow user record, no match is found. The Discovered User record is still created (using the Display name / UPN from the publisher), but the User field is left empty because there is no unambiguous sys_user to link to. This is expected out-of-the-box platform behavior — the platform will not guess or fuzzy-match user identities. Common root causes for the mismatch include: The user's email was updated in one system (publisher or ServiceNow) but not the other.The user was provisioned in the publisher system under a different domain, alias, or capitalization than the ServiceNow sys_user record.The ServiceNow user record does not exist yet (the person is licensed in the publisher system but not onboarded in ServiceNow).The publisher UPN uses a personal, legacy, or alternate alias that no longer matches the corporate email of record in ServiceNow. Resolution<!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } Correct the email / UPN mismatch so that the identifier used by the publisher exactly matches the email of the corresponding ServiceNow user. The correction can be applied on either side of the integration, depending on which system holds the authoritative user identity. Option 1 — Correct the email on the publisher side Log in to the publisher's administration console.Locate the affected user.Update the user's email / UPN to match the email value on the corresponding ServiceNow sys_user record.Save the change in the publisher system and wait for the next scheduled publisher integration run in ServiceNow (or trigger it manually).Reopen the Discovered User record and confirm the User field is now populated. Option 2 — Correct the email on the ServiceNow side Navigate to User Administration > Users (or open the sys_user record directly).Locate the corresponding ServiceNow user.Update the Email field to exactly match the UPN reported by the publisher.Save the record.Trigger or wait for the next publisher integration run so the Discovered User record is re-evaluated.Reopen the Discovered User record and confirm the User field is now populated. Validation On the affected samp_discovered_user record, confirm the User field now references the correct ServiceNow user.Open the associated Software Subscription record and confirm the subscription is now allocated to the expected user.Compare against a known working Discovered User on the same instance to confirm behavior is consistent. Additional Information Matching between the publisher UPN and the ServiceNow user is a strict string comparison against the email field on sys_user. Case, domain, and alias differences will all prevent matching.If a corresponding ServiceNow user record does not exist, the correct remediation is to onboard the user in ServiceNow first, then rerun the integration — not to manually attach an unrelated sys_user record.Recurrence of this issue typically indicates a gap in the user provisioning / lifecycle process across the publisher and ServiceNow. It is recommended to align user identity sources (for example, both systems provisioned from the same IdP / HR feed) to prevent future mismatches.No product defect is involved in this scenario; the platform is behaving as designed. Related Records Table: samp_discovered_userTable: samp_sw_subscriptionTable: sys_user